UN says malnutrition in Gaza has doubled as Israeli strikes kill more than 90
Hunger has been rising among Gaza's more than two million Palestinians since Israel broke a ceasefire in March to resume the war and banned all food and other supplies from entering Gaza, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages.
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)
It slightly eased the blockade in late May, allowing in a trickle of aid.
UNRWA, the main UN agency caring for Palestinians in Gaza, said it had screened nearly 16,000 children under age five at its clinics in June and found 10.2% of them were acutely malnourished.
By comparison, in March, 5.5% of the nearly 15,000 children it screened were malnourished.
– New airstrikes kill several families
One strike in the northern Shati refugee camp killed a 68-year-old Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature, as well as a man and a woman and their six children who were sheltering in the same building, according to officials from the heavily damaged Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken.
One of the deadliest strikes hit a house in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa district on Monday evening and killed 19 members of the family living inside, according to Shifa Hospital.
The dead included eight women and six children.
A strike on a tent housing displaced people in the same district killed a man and a woman and their two children.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes.
Gaza's Health Ministry said in a daily report on Tuesday afternoon that the bodies of 93 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, along with 278 wounded.
It did not specify the total number of women and children among the dead.
Smoke and dust from an Israeli bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip rises over buildings near the Israel-Gaza border (Maya Alleruzzo/AP)
The Hamas politician killed in a strike early on Tuesday, Mohammed Faraj al-Ghoul, was a member of the bloc of representatives from the group that won seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the last national elections, held in 2006.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians.
It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas.
But daily, it hits homes and shelters where people are living without warning or explanation of the target.
– Malnutrition grows
Unicef, which screens children separately from Unrwa, has also reported a marked increase in malnutrition cases.
It said this week its clinics had documented 5,870 cases of malnutrition among children in June, the fourth straight month of increases and more than double the around 2,000 cases it documented in February.
Experts have warned of famine since Israel tightened its long-running blockade in March.
Israel has allowed an average of 69 trucks a day carrying supplies, including food, since it eased the blockade in May, according to the latest figures from Cogat, the Israeli military agency in charge of co-ordinating aid.
That is far below the hundreds of trucks a day the UN says are needed to sustain Gaza's population.
On Tuesday, Cogat blamed the UN for failing to distribute aid, saying in a post on X that thousands of pallets of supplies were inside Gaza waiting to be picked up by UN trucks.
Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)
The UN says it has struggled to pick up and distribute aid because of Israeli military restrictions on its movements and the breakdown in law and order.
Israel has also let in food for distribution by an American contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
GHF says it has distributed food boxes with the equivalent of more than 70 million meals since late May at the four centres it runs in the Rafah area of southern Gaza and in central Gaza.
More than 840 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,600 others wounded in shootings as they walk for hours trying to reach the GHF centres, according to the Health Ministry.
Witnesses say Israeli forces open fire with barrages of live ammunition to control crowds on the roads to the GHF centres, which are located in military-controlled zones.
The military says it has fired warning shots at people it says have approached its forces in a suspicious manner.
GHF says no shootings have taken place in or immediately around its distribution sites.
– No breakthrough in ceasefire efforts
The latest attacks came after US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two days of talks last week that ended with no sign of a breakthrough in negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release.
Israel has killed more than 58,400 Palestinians and wounded more than 139,000 others in its retaliation campaign since Hamas' October 7 2023, attack, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Just over half the dead are women and children, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack 21 months ago, in which militants stormed into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
They abducted 251 others, and the militants are still holding 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
Israel sends tanks into Gaza's Deir al-Balah as health officials warn of 'mass deaths' from starvation
Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday. The area is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of the militant group Hamas. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said. To the south in Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed at least five people, including a husband and wife and their two children in a tent, medics said. In its daily update, Gaza's health ministry said at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis incidents. Hunger Meanwhile, officials are warning of potential 'mass deaths' in coming days from hunger, which has killed at least 19 people since Saturday, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said. Health officials say hospitals have been running out of fuel, food aid and medicine, risking a halt to vital operations. Health ministry spokesperson Khalil Al-Deqran said medical staff have been depending on one meal a day and that hundreds of people flock to hospitals every day, suffering from fatigue and exhaustion.
NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
Gaza's hunger crisis has killed hundreds — including dozens of children from malnutrition
The hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip has soared 'alarmingly' in recent weeks, health workers have warned, with a growing number of children dying of malnutrition while thousands of people across the besieged Palestinian enclave suffer from a dire lack of adequate food. 'Even we, the young ones, can barely walk due to lack of food,' said Walid Abu Mohsen, a father of seven from Khan Younis. He told NBC News' crew on the ground Sunday of his relief after plucking a sack of flour from the few trucks that arrived to offer relief to rushing crowds in the city. In another desperate corner of Gaza, footage captured the deadly aftermath after scores were killed waiting for supplies that might have let them feed their families. 'Famine is now striking Gaza alarmingly and terrifyingly,' Dr. Mohammed Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told NBC News' crew as he warned of hospitals being 'overwhelmed with waves of patients suffering from malnutrition.' He said that at least two children had died at Al-Shifa on Saturday alone. Nineteen deaths were recorded in Gaza due to malnutrition within the last 24 hours, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the territory said Monday. NBC News was not immediately able to independently confirm the figures. They add to more than 70 deaths related to malnutrition since the war began, according to Salmiya, with more than 50 children dying of malnutrition since Israel launched a blockade restricting aid into Gaza in early March, according to the World Health Organization. While that blockade was lifted in May, Israel has since allowed only limited aid into the enclave, largely distributed by the controversial U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation under a system that has seen hundreds of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces while making their way to collect food. Sunday appeared to mark the deadliest day of aid-related deaths yet, with more than 90 people reported killed as they tried to reach food, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, director of field hospitals, told NBC News. Most were killed while trying to reach aid entering through a crossing with Israel, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry's records department, told The Associated Press. The incident did not appear directly related to GHF's distribution system. The World Food Programme said in a statement Sunday that a 25-truck WFP convoy had been carrying vital food supplies from the Zikim border point when it encountered 'large crowds of civilians anxiously waiting.' It said that as the convoy approached, the crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire, resulting in 'the loss of countless lives.' The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident. The United Nations human rights office, OHCHR, said earlier this month that nearly 900 people had been killed in the enclave trying to access food. 'Worse than I've ever seen' In a news release Sunday, GHF said it had distributed more than 82 million meals through its handful of aid distribution points in the enclave since it began operations in late May. But among a population of roughly 2.1 million people, that amount equates to less than one meal per person per day over the more than 50 days since the organization launched its program. While other aid efforts are also underway in the enclave, humanitarian experts have warned that not nearly enough food is reaching Palestinians, while food prices in local markets have skyrocketed amid the shortage of goods. Nearly 1 in every 3 people in Gaza is 'not eating for days at a time,' the WFP warned Friday. 'The situation is worse than I've ever seen it before,' WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Carl Skau told journalists in a briefing earlier this month. Skau shared how some mothers had described urging their kids not to play to avoid draining their energy given the lack of food. A spokesperson for GHF acknowledged to NBC News in an email on Monday that 'there isn't enough aid coming into Gaza.' 'GHF is the only organization that has been able to get aid in and that needs to change fast which we have been saying for weeks now,' they said. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News on Monday on concerns about the lack of adequate food reaching families in Gaza. Israel has maintained that there are hundreds of aid trucks sitting inside Gaza awaiting distribution, with Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani saying in a post on X on Sunday that there were over 700 trucks in the enclave. Before the war, around 500 trucks carrying aid entered the enclave daily, according to the British Red Cross. Aid workers have previously described the task of trying to distribute aid in the enclave amid Israel's offensive as a logistical 'nightmare.'
South Wales Guardian
3 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
UN agency says Israeli tanks and snipers opened fire on Gaza crowd seeking aid
The World Food Programme condemned the violence that erupted in northern Gaza as Palestinians tried to reach a convoy of trucks carrying food. The Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 80 people were killed in the incident. The Israeli military has said it fired warning shots 'to remove an immediate threat', but has questioned the death toll reported by the Palestinians. The accusation by a major aid agency that has had generally good working relations with Israel builds on descriptions by witnesses and others, who also said Israel opened fire on the crowd. The bloodshed surrounding aid access highlights the increasingly precarious situation for people in Gaza who have been desperately seeking out food and other assistance, as the war shows no signs of ending. Israel and Hamas are still engaged in ceasefire talks, but there appears to be no breakthrough and it is not clear whether any truce would bring the war to a lasting halt. As the talks proceed, the death toll in the war-ravaged territory has climbed to more than 58,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. Israel has meanwhile widened its evacuation orders for the territory to include an area that has been somewhat less hard-hit than others, indicating a new battleground may be opening up and squeezing Palestinians into ever tinier stretches of Gaza. In northern Gaza on Sunday, the Health Ministry, witnesses and a UN official said Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds who tried to get food from a 25-truck convoy that had entered the hard-hit area. The WFP statement, which said the crowd surrounding its convoy 'came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire,' backs up those claims. The statement did not specify a death toll, saying only the incident resulted in the loss of 'countless lives.' 'These people were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation,' it said, adding that the incident occurred despite assurances from Israeli authorities that aid delivery would improve. Part of those assurances, it said, was that armed forces would not be present nor engage along aid routes. The Israeli military declined to comment on the WFP claims. Military spokesperson Lt Col Nadav Shoshani posted on X on Sunday that soldiers were told 'do not engage, do not shoot'. Israel has not allowed international media to enter Gaza throughout the war, and the competing claims could not be independently verified. Sunday's incident comes as Palestinian access to aid in the territory has been greatly diminished, and seeking that aid has become perilous. A US and Israeli-backed aid system that has wrested some aid delivery from traditional providers like the UN has been wracked by violence and chaos as Palestinians heading toward its aid distribution sides have come under fire. The group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, had said that the majority of the reported violence has not occurred at its sites.
